The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) launched a groundbreaking campaign on March 15, 2012, to raise awareness of the human suffering caused by smoking and to encourage smokers to quit.

The campaign, called "Tips From Former Smokers,” profiles people who are living with the significant adverse health effects due to smoking, such as stomas, paralysis from stroke, lung removal, heart attack, and limb amputations. The advertisements underscore the immediate damage that smoking can cause to the body and feature people who experienced smoking-related diseases at a relatively young age. Some of the people were diagnosed with life-altering diseases before they were 40 years old.

These hard-hitting ads will help people quit, saving lives and decreasing the huge economic burden caused by tobacco use. The campaign will serve as an important counter to expenditures for marketing and promotion of cigarettes that exceed $1 million an hour—more than $27 million a day—in the United States.

The campaign also gives voice to three former smokers who provide tips on how they successfully quit. Each tip, such as throwing away their cigarettes and ashtrays, exercising, identifying a strong reason to quit, and "just keep trying,” has been shown to help. All of the ads contain a very clear and encouraging message to smokers that they CAN quit and that free resources are available by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or accessing www.smokefree.gov.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States—killing more than 443,000 Americans each year. More than 8 million Americans are living with a smoking-related disease, and every day more than 1,000 youth under 18 become daily smokers.

What Are the Campaign Goals?

• Encourage smokers to quit and make available help for those who want it, including calling 1-800-QUIT-NOWhttp://www.smokefree.gov or visiting www.smokefree.gov for free help

• Build public awareness of the immediate health damage caused by smoking and exposure to

secondhand smoke

• Encourage smokers not to smoke around others and nonsmokers to protect themselves and their

families from exposure to secondhand smoke

Who Is the Campaign Trying to Reach?

• The primary audience is adult smokers ages 18 through 54.

• Secondary audiences include parents, family members, and adolescents.

• Spanish-language materials (TV, radio, and print) have been developed to reach Spanish-speaking

Hispanics/Latinos.

What Are the Key Messages of the Campaign?

• Smoking causes immediate damage to your body, which can lead to long-term suffering.

• Now is the time to quit smoking.

• If you want help to quit smoking, free assistance is available at 1-800-QUIT-NOW, www.smokefree.gov,

Paid advertising and public service announcements (PSAs) will be placed in/on television, radio, print (magazines), newspapers, out-of-home (billboards, bus shelters), in-theater, and online through digital video, search, and mobile channels. Additional information and resources will be made available to the public through the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

How Long Will the Campaign Run?

The paid portion of the campaign will begin on March 19th and will run for 12 weeks. The PSAs, including an advertisement that specifically promotes quitting, will likely run longer.

What Resources Will Be Included on the Ads?

Most of the ads will be tagged with the national quitline number (1-800-QUIT-NOW) and/or www.smokefree.gov. The digital ads, including digital video, will be included on the CDC campaign Web site www.cdc.gov/quitting/tips.

Much research shows that quitlines are highly effective in helping tobacco users quit. Due to their ability to reach and serve tobacco users, regardless of location, quitlines have quickly spread across North American. Today, residents in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, each U.S. territory, all ten Canadian provinces and two territorieshave access to public quitline services.What is a Quitline?This fact sheet provides an overview of the quitline experience.

Who Uses Quitlines?This fact sheet describes the many types of tobacco users who call quitlines for help in quitting.

What level of calls have quitlines received in the past month? Year? 5 years?The federal government tracks calls that come through the 1-800-QUIT-NOW telephone number. Please note the large increase in calls that was experienced in spring 2010 when the federal tax on tobacco increased significantly.

Because some states have other phone numbers as well (ie, in-state toll-free numbers) these statistics do not provide a true assessment of all calls received by quitlines. To see data on the utilization of quitlines and the reach of quitlines (ie, proportion of smokers who receive treatment from quitlines each year), please see the links below:

If you have any questions regarding quitline data, please contact Dr.Jessie Saul, Director of Research at jsaul@naquitline.org or 800-398-4389 ext. 702.

World Quitline Mapfeatures quitlines for each state, province and territory with detailed information on the types of services offered, general contact information and hours of operation, NRT, cigarette tax data, smoke-free laws, and important benchmarking data on the budget and utilization of each quitline.

Learn about NAQCThe North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) is a non-profit organization that strives to promote evidence-based quitline services across diverse communities in North America. By bringing quitline partners together—including state and provincial quitline administrators, researchers, quitline service providers, and national tobacco control organizations in the United States and Canada—NAQC helps facilitate shared learning and encourages improvements in the quality and availability of quitline services.

NAQC’s Mission:Maximize the access, use, and effectiveness of quitlines;Provide leadership and a unified voice to promote quitlines; andOffer a forum to link those interested in quitline operations.

NAQC’s Goals:GOAL 1: INCREASE THE USE OF QUITLINE SERVICES IN NORTH AMERICA

GOAL 2: INCREASE THE CAPACITY OF QUITLINE SERVICES IN NORTH AMERICA

GOAL 3: INCREASE THE QUALITY AND CULTURAL APPROPRIATENESS OF QUITLINES IN NORTH AMERICA Learn more here.»back to top